Fixation and conversion of CO2 using ionic liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs), a kind of novel green media composed entirely of cations and anions, have recently attracted considerable attention due to their unique properties such as non-volatility, tunable polarity, high stability and so on. In this work, the latest progress on the fixation and conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) using ILs as absorbents, catalysts or promoters has been summarized. The absorption performance of conventional ILs and task-specific ILs was systematically investigated, the conversion of CO2 with epoxides, propargyl alcohols and amines using ILs was critically evaluated, and the significant advantages in the fixation and conversion of CO2 using the ILs were demonstrated compared to the conventional absorbents and the catalytic systems without ILs. This research progress may finally lead to building of an in situ fixation–conversion process of CO2 with ILs. If so, we are near an epoch of the fixation and utilization of CO2, although there is obviously a long way to go for us to achieve such a goal.